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The CITE, a blog published by the National Association of College Stores, takes a look at the intersection of education and technology, highlighting issues that range from course materials to learning delivery to the student experience. Comments, discussion, feedback, and ideas are welcome.

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Newest Entry in Social Media Race

KakaoTalk is a no-cost messaging app that sends
messages, photos, videos, and voice notes for free. It also may be the next big
thing on campus.

The app even allows users to make free conference calls
over WiFi, according to Joshua Kim, a technology writer for Inside Higher
Education. He reported in in early September that a number of his Korean in-laws were already using
the app and wondered how long it would take before he would start seeing
students using it on campus.

Apparently not very long at all. By the end of
September, KakaoTalk was being offered in the App and Google Play stores as a
free download, along with a smartwatch app. The key features include fast and
reliable messaging, no matter the network, with free multimedia and voice call
functions. Users can also see who reads their messages, send messages while in
other chatrooms, and schedule appointments. It even has mobile games to play.

“From watching how my family uses KakaoTalk, I could
envision a wholesale retreat from Facebook,” Kim wrote. “Facebook is too broad,
too slow, and populated with too many people. KakaoTalk could be the next big
higher-ed thing because it is not Facebook.”